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In the 15th century, altar painting was in full flower in Switzerland just as it was in the whole of southern Germany, as altars were created for the spiritual salvation of both viewer and patron. Around 1500 the leading masters signed their pictures with a small red and white carnation: the Kunsthaus has works by the four leading masters from Bern and Zurich. The four largest panels of the altar of St. Michael, attributed to Hans Leu the Elder, are the most impressive testimony to the art of old Zurich which survived the iconoclasm of 1524.